[ London Times ]
This newspaper, most correctly known simply as The Times, began publication in 1785 and continues to this day.
The edition of April 22, 1853, carried a news item about a legal action centered on a Newfoundland's attack on a child:
This case, heard in the Court of Queen's Bench, Westminster, April 21, 1853, was one of two cases heard that day involving attacks by dogs; the case ofBrooks v. English involved a lawsuit brought by a grocer against a gentleman who lived nearby. The grocer alledged that one of the gentleman's servants came into his shop with his master's Newfoundland, as he often did, but on this occasion
the dog seized the plaintiff's child, which was not three years of age, and carried it out into the street, where he began to mangle it; it was severely bitten about the face. Some persons interfered and got the child away from him. The child was now restless at nights, frequently waking up and starting in its sleep. The system had received a severe shock, and there would always be marks upon the child's face.
The gentleman who owned the dog agreed to pay something to the grocer for the injury to the child, but apparently balked at making definitive arrangements, other than paying the surgeon's bill and a 5£ payment to the court which he apparently thought was all the grocer was entitled to, and so this lawsuit agains the gentleman was filed.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of the grocer and his injured child, awarding him 20£ damages in addition to the 5£ already paid. (That's worth roughly $3,300 US in 2020.)